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11 | A monumental coin toss

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

A monumental coin toss. Two medical students, both of whom were actively involved in the founding of Freie Universität, tossed a coin to determine which of them could have the privilege of being the first student to enroll in the new university on November 5, 1948. Stanislaw Karol Kubicki won against Helmut Coper. Kubicki later became a professor of neurology and specialized in sleep research at “his” university.


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Toward the end of the 1940s, after World War II and imprisonment, Stanislaw Karol Kubicki’s life seemed to be getting a new start. He had just turned twenty and wanted to study medicine at the traditional Berlin University on Unter den Linden. However, it was located in the Soviet sector of the city of Berlin and there was no guarantee for free expression or academic freedom in teaching and research. Students were expelled from the university and arrested for expressing opinions contrary to the party line. Kubicki and his friends protested against this, but got nowhere. They were able to convince Ernst Reuter, the Mayor of Berlin, and the American Allies of the feasibility of their plan to found a new, free university in the American sector. Kubicki and his fellow student Helmut Coper tossed a coin to determine which of them would get to be the very first student to enroll at the new university. Kubicki won and became “Student Number One.”